Bedford School District Holds Public Forum on Budget

In an effort to weigh in public opinion, the Bedford Central School District has been approaching the budget presentations differently by holding public forums and input meetings.

Superintendent Dr. Jere Hochman and Assistant Superintendent for Business Mark Betz held the first out of three public input meetings at Mount Kisco Elementary School Thursday night. They discussed the budget and listened to concerns and questions from a group of about 15 residents. The new school budget proposes a 1.58 percent tax increase and a reduction of roughly 28 jobs.

Through telephone interviews the school had surveyed what residents thought the priorities of the schools were. Hochman said the same survey would be available online Monday morning, where people would be able to submit their input before the information is shared with the Board of Education.

After hearing people's opinions at previous public engagement sessions, Hochman said the main message has been to keep the quality of education high, keep programs going and make it more affordable and efficient.

"The budget is a means to an end," Hochman said. "Anything that we talk about this evening [is] a means about teaching our children and teaching them well."

Hochman presented a slide show and spoke about the budget in general, while Betz spoke in more detail about the budget in terms of numbers.

Last year the board adopted five goals that have not changed for this year's budget. They include having high expectations for every student's achievement and success in school, enhancing productivity and capacity to achieve goals, achieving operational efficiency and environmental sustainability, slowing expenditure growth with long term structural changes, and providing tax affordability.

"When times are good, it's easy to spend and there is a lot to spend on education," Hochman said. "Let's face it: we can't do enough for our kids. But now it's time to slow down that expenditure growth, to be extremely prudent in the decisions we make about what we purchase and where we expand our resources."

Heather Brewster, mother of two children, called the district unique.

"You have the best staff," she said, addressing the superintendent. "Bedford [School District] is very diversified and it has the reputation because of its quality."

Adriana Palladino, who has a 9-year-old child in the district, said that lowering the number of teacher aides would directly affect the children.

"If you cut down staff, you are going to overwhelm the teachers and it will have a negative impact on the kids' learning," she said.

"Dr. Hochman and Mr. Betz take very seriously the task of looking at the budget and figuring out where they cut," Board of Education member Donna Marino said.

Sejal Srinivasan, who has two children in the district, suggested people raise money to replace the gap in the budget.

"$1.8 million is lot to cut out of this budget," she said. "If you just took 2,800 families, it's not that much money per family if you got everyone to donate money."

"The trends of passed budgets were very favorably approved, but we were in different economic times," Mount Kisco Elementary School Assistant Principle Kwoen Stambaugh said. "More people now are personally impacted. There is a general curiosity to see where we are headed."

The Board of Education plans to adopt the budget on April 7. The budget will go to voters on May 18.